


Just an Empty Journal

by Idaiir



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Eldritch, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28506072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idaiir/pseuds/Idaiir
Summary: Alec tries assisting Trahearne with finding books to help cleanse Orr. After giving up, he stumbles upon something far more interesting, and perhaps far more personal.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Just an Empty Journal

Trahearne had explained that this room must have, at one point, been a small library. Alec had his doubts that they’d find anything of use in here, after all how would paper and ink fare against the Cataclysm? But as Trahearne had pointed out, the small circular room had been warded at some point, and with it being atop a small tower, there were chances that the flooding had been minimal. A tell tale line a quarter of the way up the wall and shelves did seem to indicate that at least some of the room escaped a watery demise, though who knew what hundreds of years of rot and neglect would do to the remaining books.

Trahearne was looking for anything that might contain information relative to their current predicament with Zhaitan or their attempt to cleanse Orr. Most of the books (as Alec had guessed) were apparently totally unreadable, or if they were legible, of no use. He had found a couple that he deemed might be useful later, and set them aside in a small pile to pour over later. 

Alec mostly spent his time looking for pictures or symbols, often guided by some scribbled shapes Trahearne had told him to look out for, hastily drawn on a scrap of paper. He was slower, each book taking him time to puzzle over before deciding it was no use. There had been one he’d handed to his companion, that Trahearne had smiled and thanked him for, telling the younger human he’d done a good job. At that Alec had beamed, before flushing brightly and hurrying back to continue his task.

The pair had been meticulously searching the shelves all day, and Trahearne would have completely skipped lunch if Alec hadn’t been there to drag the Sylvari away for even just a short break. Even now as the late afternoon sun slowly sank; Trahearne was insistent they continued searching, just for a couple more hours. 

Alec rubbed his eyes, he didn’t know if he’d been this long without his blindfold before, and he’d certainly never spent an extended time staring at books he couldn’t read. He glanced over, and saw the gentle throb of Trahearne’s glow pulsing in the now dim light. With a sigh he stood up and stretched, there was no use him sitting here with a headache.

“I’m going to wander ‘bout the the rest of this…” he waved his arms, “ruined building thing.” He picked up his blindfold and tied it around his eyes, even with just closing them he felt the strain behind his eyes slowly recede. “I’ll let you know if I find anything weird.” 

Trahearne nodded, barely glancing up from his current book, “Of course! Be careful as always, this building did spend hundreds of years under water,” as if to illustrate his point, he moved his foot over a floorboard and pressed down. Even with the slightest of pressure it let out a mournful creak. “Though as Commander I’m sure you’ll avoid falling through any rotten floors.”

Alec laughed, they both knew he wasn’t particularly graceful, but he had yet to fall through any floors. “Yeah I’ll be careful.”

He sent out a searching pulse of magic. The shadowy wave washed over a small crumbling corpse of an ancient spider. As soon as the creature twitched Alec snapped the magic back to himself, and with it was flooded with the ability to see even with the blindfold on. Although a little disorienting at first, creatures with more than two eyes always threw him momentarily, he felt safety in using it to see. As his new risen creature scuttled towards him he waved at Trahearne. “I’ll be back in a bit!”

Picking his way down the winding stairs, he tried to imagine what this place was like originally. It must have been fancy at one point, it had a tower and a library, two things Alec thought were entirely extravagant and probably only useful to people that had lots of time and money. 

He wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking for, most of the furniture was destroyed beyond recognition, and each room smelt stronger of damp and mold than the last. He could only guess at what each room would have been, and on this floor he assumed it was mostly bedrooms. The spider, now perched on his backpack, was wildly looking around too. The older the creature the harder it was to control, so drawing it’s attention to looking around the room was a little trickier than normal.

Alec decided to not focus on looking for anything, as Trahearne had mentioned earlier, the tower was all that had escaped with minimal flooding. Instead he decided stretching his legs was enough, and began making his way down to the ground floor. 

The entrance must have been nice at one point, but all that stood of it now was a half-collapsed doorway surrounded by rubble. Large gaping holes in the wall let in the cold bitter wind, causing Alec to shiver and draw his coat tighter around him. Perks of being the “Commander” meant he’d actually been given new clothes that fit and were practical. That was one good thing at least.

There was something else aside from the chill and smell of mold, something Alec couldn’t place. It hadn’t been on any of the other floors but here, and he hadn’t noticed it when they arrived. It was like a pull, or perhaps best described as an itch, but deep in the centre of his gut. Gnawing on his lower lip he began making his way past the old staircase and further into the ground floor’s rooms. The air was perfectly still, undisturbed for hundreds of years, though Alec’s movements caused the ancient dust to rise.

This part of the house was in the worst condition yet, large gaps in the stonework and huge parts of the wooden flooring was swollen with water damage. What remained of the once colourful wallpaper was peeled or covered in mottled growths of... something. Still the strange sensation grew in strength. It made the human feel uneasy, it felt as if he should turn around and flee, but his body was compelled to seek out whatever was calling to him. 

Stopping in the centre of what was presumably the dining room, he once again removed his blindfold. It was dark in here, no windows or walls with cracks to reveal the evening light. Despite this being where the sensation felt strongest, the room seemed ordinary. Broken tables and chairs littered the room, with the once regal candelabra now rusted and twisted amongst it all. Alec was slightly disappointed but he wasn’t sure why, he hadn’t really expected to find anything interesting at all. Maybe he was just hungry. He turned, deciding to climb back up the tower and drag Trahearne away from the books for the night and get them both some food.

Too late did he feel his foot step onto a board completely swollen with water damage. His entire weight was on it as his leg disappeared through the gap, and before he even had a chance to react the floor gave way with a tremendous cracking sound. He managed to protect his head as he plummeted down, landing with a sickening thud atop broken boards and cold, hard stone. 

Groaning, he slowly sat up. The shoulder of his coat was town and his hands were filled with splinters. The connection to the small spider was gone, squashed alongside it’s now completely destroyed body. Peering back up at the hole he’d made, he wondered if Trahearne had heard the commotion. A very small amount of light filtered through to this strange underground room, beyond the ever so slightly illuminated area it was pitch black, and Alec could feel tendrils of fear grasping at him as failed to make out anything in the darkness.

The strange sensation was even stronger down here, compelling him to explore further despite his fear of the dark. He sent out another wave of magic, hoping to feel anything he could raise to help him at least see.

Instead of the body of anything dead, he felt his magic wash around the seemingly large basement and come into connection with something that felt surprisingly similar to himself. Without warning, the room was bathed in an eerie dim purple light. Magical illuminations hovered against the wall, as if triggered by the shadows Alec had sent out. 

The connection strengthened into a sharp tug, and he felt himself get to his feet. The pain of his landing subsided as he made his way through the room. Overall it was fairly empty; a stone slab in the middle of the room, covered in strange and detailed carved shapes, a couple of wooden benches scattered about, shelving with random odds and ends, and a bookshelf. It was this final piece of furniture that caught Alec’s attention. This plain shelf covered in books was what seemed to be drawing him towards it. He didn’t even question the minimal damage in this room, instead too focused on the source of the now unbearable feeling.

He reached out, grabbing at one of the books and yanked it off the shelf. The cover was blank, unassuming, but each one of these tomes called to him. He carefully flicked through it, and at first felt a wave of disappointment. Black ink swirled over the page, clearly smeared from water damage. Even if it hadn’t been almost destroyed by water he still had no hope of reading it. He flicked through it, dense, handwritten notes filled the pages. He placed it back on the shelf and pulled out another one, then another, each one the same. It was only when he pulled out one with less damage did he think to properly look at the writing.

At first he’d just assumed it was Common, but the shapes looked nothing like what he had come to recognise. Instead they curled in on themselves, forming intricate patterns and harsh lines. He traced them with his hand, slowly following the words on the page. He hadn’t realised he was mouthing along to them. They spoke of strange creatures and dreams haunted by something huge and monstrous. They spoke of madness and sickness, destruction and power. 

Alec was engrossed, at some point these shapes had turned into words that he could understand, that he could feel them. As he read what was on the page, it felt as if he was trying to remember a half-forgotten dream, grasping at swirling half-formed thoughts and loose ideas. There was something frustrating too, like it was just there but he couldn’t work it out. He didn’t notice that he’d chewed on his lip enough to draw blood, not even as a droplet fell, staining the page with a red blot.

“-Alec!” A hand on Alec’s shoulder brought him back and he turned and looked at Trahearne, somewhat dazed.

“I heard the commotion all the way up in the tower! Is everything alright?” The sylvari looked concerned. “I came as soon as I heard the crash.”

Alec merely nodded, still somewhat groggy, as if he really had been woken up mid-dream.

“You don’t look too hurt, bit of a scrape on your shoulder,” He gestured to the human’s torn sleeve before continuing, “But it could have been far worse.” Trahearne smiled, his glow turning the eerie purple glow of the magic into one of warmth.

“I found more books,” he paused and gestured to the bookshelf in front of him. “I thought I’d got away from all this ‘reading’.”

With a deep laugh Trahearne held out a hand “I can see that. May I take a look?” 

Alec again nodded and handed the book over, hopefully Trahearne would be able to make more sense of it. He was well-read after all, and knowledgeable about all sorts of matters concerned with Ancient Orr, which Alec assumed this strange book to be about.

“Oh this is a nice journal, would have been expensive at the time!” The sylvari was flicking through the pages. “Why don’t you keep it, use it for your drawings?” 

Alec was puzzled but kept quiet, simply nodding when Trahearne handed the book back. He looked at it in his hands once again, how could he draw when the pages were covered in this strange language?

He watched as his companion browsed the shelf, picking up some more of the less damaged tomes.

“Whoever used to live here not only had a questionable taste in books in their library, also seemed to enjoy collecting journals and never using them.” He smiled sadly, “Perhaps they were going to write a book of their own and never got the chance.”

“They don’t say anything at all?” Alec blurted out, confused.

“Looks like they are just empty journals.” Trahearne stood up straight and tapped the one in Alec’s hands. “Keep that one! The paper is nice quality and you could use it for yourself.” He then offered Alec his hand. “Come, let's get out of here, it's very dark and I know you don’t do well in the dark.” His words held no judgement, though Alec frowned all the same.  
“It’s, not that dark?” Alec was confused, first the books now the weird purple lights? Could Trahearne not see any of it. “There are little magic lights that appeared when I cast a spell!”

Trahearne looked concerned, then gently took Alec’s hand anyway. “Perhaps it’s something new you can do,” He began leading Alec towards the ‘make-shift’ entrance where he’d placed a rickety ladder “Or perhaps when you fell you hit your head. I’ll have a proper look at you when we get out into the light.”

Alec mumbled in agreement, still clutching the supposedly blank journal. The strange pull that led him here faded away to nothing, and all that he was left with was a worrying confusion and sense of uneasy loss.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was too long to just post as normal on tumblr so on here it goes again! I wasn't sure how to tag it on here either oops. My commander, Alec is the human reincarnation of some weird evil Elder God/Eldritch Abomination years ago but doesn't realise (Because I love my over the top fantasy/weird horror stuff!) Also not read over by anyone else, just me so I might have repeated sentences or made mistakes, but I had lots of fun writing it!
> 
> Also I'm not great at responding to comments, I like reading them but I get spooked with replying if ya do end up commenting XD


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